Spider-Man: The Animated Series Episode Thirty-Seven: The Sins of the Fathers, Chapter 10 - Venom Returns

Venom Returns

First Aired: November 2nd, 1996

Synopsis: Vicious criminal Cletus Kassady is surrounded in his home by the police, who enter it to capture him. Terri Lee is captured by Kassady but Spider-Man shows up and saves her. While this happens, a meteor lands on the outskirts of the city, and the symbiote emerges from it when a couple investigates.  In prison, Eddie Brock goes over his origin to his counsellor, Ashley Kafka, and explains that he originally became a reporter since he wanted to combat injustice. Kassady is brought in in the midst of this, and he and Eddie immediately clash. Meanwhile, Baron Mordo is contacted by Dormammu, who wants to use the symbiote for his own plans. Mordo contacts Eddie and asks him if he'll accept the symbiote back if it means working for Domammu, and Eddie accepts. Shortly afterwards, one half of the couple who encountered the symbiote at the start of the episode visits Eddie, and gives him the symbiote which turns him into Venom again. Kassady sees this and is jealous. Venom goes to Dormammu, who explains that Mordo secretly sent the space probe the symbiote was stuck to back to Earth and hypnotised the woman to give it to him.

 

Meanwhile, Peter and Debbie Whitman go to Stark Enterprises, where there's a demonstration of an interdimensional probe. Peter also notes that Baron Mordo is there, and guesses that he wants to use the probe to free Dormammu. Venom shows up as the demonstration starts and plans to steal the probe for Dormammu, but Peter changes to Spider-Man and fights Venom, alongside War Machine who shows up. Baron Mordo is dubious that Venom can win against both of them, but Dormammu explains to him that he wanted the symbiote to return now because it has reproduced. In prison, Kassady is contacted and is given the symbiote's offspring by the other half of the couple, turning him into Carnage. Carnage joins Venom's fight, but Ashley Kafka shows up to try and talk down Venom, and is injured. She asks Venom whether now that he has his power back, he'll fight injustice. Carnage manages to grab the interdimensional probe and injures Spider-Man, then prepares to cut off his head.

Subplots:

• As Kassady is arrested, Spider-Man's contacted by Madam Web, who tells Spider-Man that he'll need to overcome fear and rely on unlikely allies to stop an upcoming evil, baffling him.

Miscellaneous Notes:

• When Terri Lee is in Kassady's house, hunting him, she enters a room, only for a giant metal door to slam shut behind her and trap her. How did it get there? Why was it installed? We shall never know.
• When Spider-Man fights Kassady at the start of the episode, Kassady lifts up his shirt to reveal explosives. Lee shouts out, "It looks like raw, B9 Fragmentation Plastique!" Because that's what  you shout out when someone reveals that they're a suicide bomber.
• Baron Mordo's alias as a donator to Stark Enterprises is Ardon Broom, an anagram of his identity.
• So, wait, a couple are in the outskirts of New York together, when a meteor lands, and that meteor contains the symbiote which uses them to get to the city. Did Sam Raimi watch this episode before doing Spider-Man 3?
  

Review: The inclusion of Baron Mordo and Dormammu does make the plot feel a bit less Spider-Man-y, but I can't deny that they do kinda work. The explanations for how the symbiote returned to Earth works quite well with Mordo being behind it (at Dormammu's instruction, so it's not like he just randomly knew why the symbiote was on the space probe), and the fact that he donates to Stark Enterprises both justifies how he did it and why he's at the demonstration of the interdimensional probe (incidentally, Mordo looks real snazzy in a suit).

They manage to make Carnage work surprisingly well, too; it's implied strongly enough that he's still a serial killer ("he's done things even the post wouldn't print!"), and he's deranged enough that he's effective as someone you don't want to like. He and Venom being brought together to perform the dastardly deed of stealing an interdimensional probe is maybe a little silly, but only when you think about it; in the execution it works quite well.

Overall this is a solid episode - maybe even better than the original Venom episodes. The only glaring criticism I can think of is that when I saw this episode when I was younger (one of the only ones I ever did see) I had no idea who War Machine was, and thought that he was some sort of robot-man. (Come to think of it, they never explicitly say he's James Rhodes, who is introduced in this episode...I don't know whether this is a good thing or a bad thing). Obviously this isn't an issue now, but I do wonder whether that was a bit of confusion for anyone else when they initially saw the episode, and whether it hampered their enjoyment.